


Underneath This Skin

by theyhadcookies



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Angst, Future Fic, Gen, Not so happy ending, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-11
Updated: 2013-07-11
Packaged: 2017-12-19 03:53:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 983
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/879134
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theyhadcookies/pseuds/theyhadcookies
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Derek makes a deal with the Queen of Hearts.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Underneath This Skin

**Author's Note:**

> So I wrote this as part of a writing challenge I'm doing right now. Day two was "write a fanfiction" and this is what I came up with. Unbeta'd so all errors are on me. 
> 
> Please let me know if you think I need to add tags. Thank you!
> 
> Derek/Stiles if you squint really, really hard.

It’s been a few months since the mess with the alpha pack and the darach. Peter and Gerard are dead (and cut up to pieces and buried in several locations). Jennifer’s moved away from all the supernatural. All the kids he’s bitten are now part of Scott’s pack. Derek is still, somehow, an alpha but without a pack he may as well be an omega. But it’s all right. Without a pack, he can’t lead anyone into getting hurt anymore. With Scott as their alpha, Boyd, Isaac and Cora can stay safe. They have the law, the Argents and Deaton on their side. Derek can’t offer them anything better than that. 

Everything is quiet. 

And then people start dying again. 

Derek finds the first body during his morning run. The young man’s body lies a few yards from the main path and, when Derek gets a closer look, his head is missing. There is much of a smell yet - mostly fresh blood. He can’t hear any other heartbeats or footfalls around the area though. He calls 911, reports the body and continues on his run. He refuses to get involved this time. Let the police do their jobs for once. This isn’t really his territory anymore anyway. 

The newspapers announce the discovery of three more bodies in the following days. All of them have been decapitated and autopsies show that their hearts appear to be missing. 

Nobody comes to the loft to ask about the murders. He doesn’t expect them to. 

Two more weeks pass and there have been more bodies, all with their heads torn from their bodies and their hearts missing. As far as the news goes, medical examiners can’t tell how the hearts are being taken. Derek goes for his morning runs. He buys more furniture in the Ikea two towns over. He cooks meals for one and tells himself to stay out of it twice a day. 

In the end, he bumps into her in the Preserve just as he’s about to start running. She smiles at him from where she’s seated on one of the low tree branches. Her crown is dull in the pre-dawn light and her hair is darker beneath the gold. She smells like a thousand red roses and her lips are blood red. 

“You smell delectable,” she says to him. He grits his teeth, tries not to breathe in her scent anymore than he has to. 

“What do you want?”

“I’m just fulfilling my needs, Alpha Hale.” She hops down to the ground in front of him. “I thought you of all people would understand.”

“I don’t kill people.” He barely manages to contain his growl. 

“No, not people. Just your family.” She smirks at him and he flinches back, stung. “I’m only eating their hearts, Alpha Hale. They ask me to make the hurting stop and I am a benevolent queen.”

“They ask you to slice off their heads then?” He watches her warily, flexes his hands.

“Not in so many words. But they become so dull when I’m through with them. It’s a mercy to just kill them.” She laughs and steps a little closer to him. “I’m almost through here. Just one more and I won't be around for a very, very long time. You can tell that little boy and his pack to stop looking soon. Nothing more to worry about.”

It’s now or never, he thinks before lunging at her, claws extended. She laughs again and easily flies away from him. Her wings are black and sleek like a raven’s. She gouges his back with her talons and he crumples to the ground. 

“I’m disappointed, Alpha Hale,” she tuts. He staggers to his feet. He would try again, but he’s dizzy. He can hear a commotion somewhere in the distance. People are running. “No harm will come to you or the wolves, so there’s no need to worry. We are of the same ilk. But I can hear him now. Can you? His heart beats loud and strong but he is so, so very lonely.”

He can hear them coming closer and closer. Now, he can smell them too. Scott. Isaac. Allison. Stiles. 

He thinks about what would happen if Stiles were gone - how the pack would react. He hasn’t seen Stiles in ages but it’s one thing to keep your distance and another to know that he will never be laughing or snarking again in or out of your presence. 

“Take mine.” He refuses to let anything happen to Scott’s pack. Not anymore. Not if he can help it. 

He meant it, when he said they were brothers. 

She looks at him for a long moment, calculating. He can hear her breathing; it’s calm and steady. She has no heartbeat for him to decipher. The others are getting nearer. 

“Please. Just take mine.” He moves toward her and reaches out. This has to work. He doesn’t know what else to do. “I know it isn’t the same as his. But I can give it to you.”

“Lonely hearts are the most delicious, did you know,” is her response. She strides forward to close the gap between them. She grins at him, displays both rows of her sharp, sharp teeth. “And yours is the loneliest one.” 

He feels it when she plunges her hand inside him, when her cold fingers wrap around his beating heart and when she finally pulls it away. 

She’s gone by the time the others arrive. Stiles is yelling at him. Scott looks frantic. Isaac, Boyd and Allison keep their distance. He tells them he’s fine, tells them that she’s gone, tells them that it’s over. 

“Dude, it looked like she had her hand in your chest.”

“I’m fine, Stiles.”

Scott frowns at him. “Derek, I can’t hear your heartbeat.”

“I promise, I’m fine.”

For the first time in a long, long time, it’s true.

**Author's Note:**

> If you're wondering about the Queen of Hearts, I based her more from OUAT's version of her + the Wakwak from Philippine Mythology. She's essentially a hybrid of the two. 
> 
> Find me over at [DearMonday](http://dearmonday.tumblr.com)


End file.
